


9 creative ways to use a dragon

by Tinnevelly



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-28
Updated: 2014-04-28
Packaged: 2018-01-21 04:32:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1537685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinnevelly/pseuds/Tinnevelly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The title says it all. 9 short stories about Steve's adventures as a dragon and how his friends found 9 different ways to use his powers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Camping stove

**Author's Note:**

> Short story time! ^__^ 
> 
> In these stories Steve is a dragon and can vary his size. Hell, he is even able to breathe fire as a human!
> 
> Disclaimer: Band belongs to band, yadda, yadda, no money was earned, no dragons were harmed, yadda, yadda. Oh yeah, Robert belongs to me. ô_o 
> 
> Have fun!

Steve snorted and crossed his arms. In the position he watched Michael and Matt searching for the lighter. The Spine opened the trunk of the jeep and went through the bags there. He didn’t find a lighter, but something else.  
"May I ask whose this is?" He asked curious and held a little stuffed toy up. No one moved.  
"Well, then it doesn’t bother anybody when I dispose it?" Still stony silence. The Spine shrugged and strolled away with the stuffed animal.  
"Damn!" Matt ran after him, leaving Michael and Steve laughing while he got his plush toy back from the robot.  
"Well, that's settled. But we still have no idea how we could open this stupid box or make it warm."  
Hatchworth stopped him with a smile towards the opened can. "The opening is easy. And with my glasses, we can make a fire."  
Michael looked approvingly at the robot. "Very good idea. That's what we do."  
Steve raised his hand in silence. Hatchworth looked at him and stood beside him. Slowly, almost cautiously he raised his hand too and then chuckled.  
"This is fun. What are we doing here?" Totally delighted by the newly learned he rocked back and forth on his feet.  
"It’s evening and the sun is barely shining. That's not enough for a fire. We'll have to eat cold stew."  
Michael groaned and rolled his eyes as Hatchworth already started crying.  
"Having one of your tactful days, Steve? Hatchy, don’t cry. It was a great idea."  
Steve opened his eyes in unbelief and raised his hands.  
"Hey, I didn’t say anything else! It is a great idea, but it’s not enough sun there."  
Hatchworth looked at him suspiciously. "Really?"  
Steve nodded and put a hand on the robot’s shoulder . "At least you're not doing something like that." With one finger he pointed to Rabbit who danced around the dry wood.  
"What exactly is she doing" Matt wanted to know when he showed up again with his stuffed animal. He ignored the broad grin of Michael.  
"A fire dance. Among the Indians it always works!" Hatchworth explained.  
"Yes, because they were dancing around an already burning fire, Hatchy." Steve laughed.  
The robot lowered his eyes. "I see." And with that he went to his sister to explain the situation to her.  
"Well, it's cold stew." Michael said to Matt.  
"I don’t understand this situation." The Spine was confused as he watched the humans.  
They looked at him. "What?" Michael asked with a smile. Nowadays, it was increasingly rare that the robot didn’t know something or had to learn it.  
"Why do you seek a lighter, when you have a dragon?"  
Steve's nostrils flared. "I 'm not a fucking camping stove!"  
Michael and Matt looked at him.  
"When you tell someone about it, I'll kill you!" Steve squatted laughing at the woodpile and blew strongly into it.  
Hours later they were all sitting around the fire and enjoyed the warmth.


	2. Forge

"Steve, I need your help."  
The addressed looked up from his work and recognized his employer in the darkness of the workshop.  
"Sure, what can I do?" He had been sitting too long on this project and his head hurt him, something he had just noticed.  
"I designed a few new features for The Spine." Silence followed this statement. Steve cleared his throat and scratched his arm.  
"And?" he finally asked.  
Peter looked at him and held out the blueprints. Steve took them and looked at the plans.  
"Not bad. That’ll please him.” Still unsure what was expected of him, he rolled the plans together again and handed them back. Peter stared at them but didn’t take them. Steve licked his lips and tried to make sense of the conversation. Peter waited and said nothing. Steve looked at him and blinked. Peter turned and left the workshop.  
"Creepy, isn’t it?"

Hatchworth looked up at the ceiling as the cry echoed through the whole house. Curious, he looked at his sister who wiggled her ears and laughed. "Humans." She plainly said and focused on to beat her brother at Mikado.

"Damn it, Matt!" Steve was still holding cramped hand on his heart.  
Matt grinned at his colleague. "Mike isn’t here today so I thought I 'll help you repair the cables. But the plans have priority."  
Steve nodded in agreement. All this was very strange.  
"So ... uhm ... are you helping me?" Matt was visibly nervous, shifting from one foot to the other .  
"Do you have go to the bathroom or why are you fidgeting? Of course I'll help you. These circuits here don’t make sense anyway." Steve stood up and stretched.  
"The furnace is broken."  
In milliseconds Steve's mood had sunk. Without a word, he grabbed Matt and dragged him into the melting chamber.  
Once there, he rather unceremonious pressed the forging hammer in Matt’s hand. A crude titanium block was placed on the heat-resistant material.  
"The usual!"  
Matt nodded and smiled in satisfaction. He prepared everything for forging when he heard the loud crack of the bones. Disgusted, he turned away and only looked back at his friend when he already was a dragon.  
"I still don’t believe this really worked." Steve wasn’t much larger than he had been as a man, even though he clearly had the figure of a dragon.  
Matt smiled. "Peter is a genius. And who would have thought that is actually written in the archive that dragons can change their size."  
Steve snorted. "In this cursed house I now believe just about anything. It’s easier."  
A yellow flame leaped over the metal and made it softer. The dragon took the glowing red block fearless into his hands and placed it on the anvil.  
"And I really deserve the ice cream!" Steve grumbles as he watched Matt during forging and sometimes re-heated the metal.


	3. Shade

It had been unbearably hot for days. Even the robots suffered from the heat and had hidden in the cellar. However, for the humans it wasn’t much better. Those who could stayed in the cool of the house, who had to get out stayed on in the shade. Only a creature seemed to love the heat.  
"He isn’t serious, is he?" Michael leaned against the sink and looked out the kitchen window.  
"Does it surprise you?" Carolina wasn’t very interested in the sights and leafed through the newspaper.  
Michael shook his head and took a cold drink from the fridge to then warp back to his cool workshop..  
"What are they doing?" Something had attracted Carolinas attention so that she even put down the newspaper and stood up.

"Only a little further!"  
The Spine groaned and pumped steam out of his circuits so as not to collapse in the heat. The fact that he alone dragged a huge pool of water didn’t help . "That's what you said in the warehouse." He answered Rabbit.  
Hatchworth ran merrily in front of the two and now had the most difficult task of all.  
"Steve?" Silence.  
"Steve!" Thanks to its built-in megaphone Hatchworth could attract the attention of every living being in the garden. A huge shadow slid over him as the dragon's head obscured the sun.  
"Stay like this!”  
The dragon seemed to frown when he realized what was happening around him. He held all paws away from himself and roared in frustration. Whatever these robots now were up to he wouldn’t be allowed to bask on.  
"No, no! You shall remain like this! And here will be the pool!" Hatchworth pulled gently on one of Steve's claws and stomped his foot like a petulant child.  
Steve looked at him and spread a wing so that the sun wasn’t shining directly to the three robots and heating them up.  
The Spine, now with the help of Rabbit and Hatchworth, let the huge pool down.  
"Oh, that's nice!" Steve already had an idea but he wanted to tease them a little and pulled himself up. Closer and closer and closer he pushed his snout towards the cool water. "A drinking bowl just for me!"  
A metal hand was laid on his snout front. "No!"  
Rabbit had herself positioned in front of him. Steve grumbled. She always treated him like a dog. And the worst was ...  
"Sit!"  
The huge dragon rump thundered to the ground, the tail paved a small shed.  
... he had the urge to listen to it.  
"You'll be able to bask. We push the pool in your shadow." Rabbit said now friendly and stroked the scaly paw.  
The plan sounded good.  
Steve laid, content on this trade, back in the sun and stretched so that as getting the heat on every part of his body. A quiet contented growl escaped his throat.

Something wet on his snout awoke him from pleasant dreams. He had to squint to see who had the nerve to stand there.  
"You really are a universal assistant, Steve!"  
For a moment the dragon was fighting the urge to eat his superior.


	4. Psychologist

"It's enough!” The Spine shoved Michael out of his way. Even if he was quite gentle, the human was still rubbing his arm and remained out of reach of the robot.  
"It's for your own good!" He tried in vain to object.  
"To my or yours? Just because I wasn’t meant to have feelings, you treat me like that now?"  
Michael looked down and let the angry The Spine trudge out the door. He had learned to deal with these tantrums but every time anew they were scary.

Steve had noticed all the hassle and now crept into the room.  
"He doesn’t understand it, huh?"  
Michael shook his head. "He thinks we treat him like this because he is a machine."  
Hatchworth was looking out the window. "He scares me." He was depressed about it and hid as The Spine glanced at the house.  
"Us too. But he needs to understand that we have a good reason not to let him see Rabbit. He couldn’t bear to see her like that. And I can’t work fast enough to get it done in one day." Michael looked desperately for his friend in the garden.  
"He has to deal with it. It doesn’t help anyone, if he falls into old patterns while we are at his mercy." Steve tried to reassure his colleague. "Is he tearing out a tree?" He asked in amazement as he stood beside Michael and looked out .  
"Someone needs to stop him!" Hatchworth wailed helplessly out from under the window sill. "Before he hurts himself." He had great compassion and understood his older brother, but he knew that this wasn’t the right way.  
"I’ll talk to him." Steve submitted his tools to Michael and opened the door with a bold look. An angry roar and a half tree greeted him.  
"Do you like that? To be helpless?" The Spine had the other half of the tree in his hands.  
Michael stared wordlessly at the scene and shook his head. If he had just turned off The Spine early enough. But the supplication to be at Rabbit's side had softened his heart.  
A burning tree caught his eye as Steve burned the tree to ashes which had pushed him to the ground. The other half flew and was hit in the air and smashed to pieces by a huge dragon tail.  
"Now listen, you..." The dragon sneezed and spat when the robot threw oil at his snout.  
"I want to see Rabbit!" That was the last thing The Spine could say before a paw thundered him to the ground and fixed him there. Angry flashing eyes scrutinized him through between the claws.  
"Do you think that it is fun for us? But Mike has broken her down into her individual parts. Do you want to see that? Want to do this to you? It breaks our heart, how would you react as her brother?"  
Steve roared as The Spine forcibly snatched a scale from the paw.  
"I do not care! I need her!"  
Sighing, Michael stepped out of the house and nodded to Steve. So it was no use. The usually sensible The Spine was completely born to be wild and frantic.

They had been right from the beginning. It didn’t really break his heart but the sight of his sister was too much. Instantly images from the past flickered through his wires and made him cry involuntarily. He tried to find the right words but failed. The only thing to leave his mouth were pleading words that made no sense. A bandaged hand wiped over the oily cheeks with a cloth and Steve smiled at him tiredly.  
"I'm sorry about your hand." The Spine squeezed out. For more he was no longer able.  
"Tonight we start her up the first time. Until then, we leave Michael alone to work here, yeah?" The metal head was shaken vigorously.  
"Hey, it’s your fault I can’t work alone. You have to watch the cables for me and take care of QWERTY. It’s not easy with such a thick hand."  
Steam escaped at the same time from all valves and wrapped The Spine briefly in dense fog. Then finally he nodded.  
"But tonight I can see her?" He assured. Steve grinned at him.  
"Before you hit me again? Sure!"  
A gentle mental hand was placed against the soft, warm skin of Steve's arm and The Spine even managed to smile a little.  
"Then I'll help you."


	5. Gardener

The last winter had transformed the whole town in a single lump of ice, so it now slowly awoke to life again in the first rays of spring sun. The first people left their homes without arctic clothing and the bravest among them tried to put a bit of green in their gardens again. But the winter had the earth still firmly in control and so there were some problems.  
Rabbit snorted steam against overload as she tried to ram the blade into the ground. The Spine gently pulled his sister away from the garden equipment and nodded at her encouragingly.  
"Watch me." he said and grabbed the blade the way he had seen it in a book. "A straight back is better to build up pressure." With a flourish he rammed the blade into the ground and smiled proudly at Rabbit.  
"Then you can go ahead." His sister complained and pouted. She would be able to do this on the second attempt, too!  
"Of course." The Spine chuckled at the stubbornness of his sister and jerked the blade. The next time he jerked a little stronger. He cupped the stem firmly and pulled now with all his efforts.  
The gravity had won and The Spine found himself on the ground. His fingers were curved around a seemingly invisible object because the stem had separated from the metal head of the blade and had flown through the air in a high arc.  
"Is that yours?" Hatchworth giggled thrilled when he found the owner of the flying piece of wood. "It would have almost hit Matt.” He added still giggling.  
"That's not funny, Hatchy. I could’ve hurt him..." During his speech The Spine wanted to get up and noticed that something held him on the ground. Rabbit began to laugh out loud and now Hatchworth giggled even louder.  
"Your spine has dug into the ground!" Rabbit said and crouched gleefully grinning beside her brother.  
"Get me out of here." All the humor seemed to be deleted from The Spine’s hard drives.

"He did what?" Michael breathed into his bare hands and rubbed them to warm up his fingers a bit.  
"He wanted to dig a hole and is upset!" Hatchworth laughed the whole time and that's how the humans learned of the disaster.  
"Isn’t Matt watching on you?" Michael wanted to know with a glance.  
"The Spine had almost hit him with the blade wood!" Hatchworth gave as answer.  
Michael looked at Steve, who tried to make himself invisible behind the newspaper.  
"Come on, get out."  
Steve shook his head behind the newspaper and muttered something of uncommon cold that would kill any dragon. Michael pulled the newspaper from his hands and looked at his friend.  
"Either you get your dragon ass out now or you'll help me build the crane, to bring it out ..." He left the rest of his threat open and grinned maliciously.  
"You're a mean guy. A really nasty bag of dirt!" Steve grumbled even when he was already up. Scowling, he stepped out of the kitchen door out into the cold. A low wail was heard.  
"Hurry up and it will go faster." Michael teased him.

Grumbling and mumbling a dragon stomped through the snow. He took a careful hold of the metal of The Spine and pulled it forcefully. Nothing stirred. Determined, he grabbed the robot with more force, who endured everything in silence, and moved again. This time the earth loosened and surprised Steve with it. He jerked back and lost his balance. The equilibrium of the huge animal shifted and before he could react, Steve had hit and stared at the sky. A reproachful hawking sounded from his left paw.  
"I think the right word for my situation would be: Ouch." One leg of The Spine hung at an odd angle and the robot fought for his balance when Steve put him on the floor.  
"That'll be a lesson not to dig holes in this weather." Steve told him and tried to downplay his mistake.  
"You burrow nice little holes and I have a look at this. Tomorrow morning the gardener will come and plant new trees and shrubs." Michael intervened and stopped The Spine upright.  
"It's cold!" Steve took a deep breath and watched the mist that rose into the air.  
"Then get moving." With these words the mechanic went into the house and let Steve back with Rabbit and Hatchworth.  
"Do you bury us like a dog his bone?" Suggested Rabbit in front of him with a laugh.  
Steve nodded and grabbed the two robots that now playful screamed for help as the dragon 's claws forcibly drove into the ground and ripped the earth from the ground.

"Do I want to know why you look like this?” Peter Walter VI leaned against the door frame and looked at Steve who was buried under many blankets. Hatchworth had just brought him some soup and Rabbit was flipping through the TV channels.  
"Cold." That was all that the landlord got as answer before the other had to sneeze vigorously. Peter smiled and went back to his own room. He decided not to tell anyone that he had postponed the date for the gardener to the summer when it would be easier to dig holes.


	6. All-rounder

Tired, he lounged between the crisp sheets and stretched. A yawn escaped him. Somehow did his back hurt after the night. Stretch, crack, better. He really should get up now, after all he could see the sun behind the heavy curtains.  
"Well, finally awake?" A male voice in his room.  
Steve shot out of the bed, staring at the uninvited guest. Michael grinned.  
"The beauty sleep has probably brought nothing?" Casual with a cheeky grin, he stood there, leaning against the wall and with a bag in his hand.  
"The band has a concert in three hours. The room isn’t ready yet and here is your lunch."  
With a shocked look Steve disappeared in the bathroom. Michael pulled the alarm clock out from under a pillow and shook his head laughing.

"I woke him and told him the situation. Everything else is his problem." Michael shrugged his shoulders as he heaved the heavy cable bundles out of the car and handed them over to Matt.  
"And half an hour ago. Where is he? And how can someone sleep until the afternoon?"  
The Spine grabbed some of the heavier stuff and carried it towards the hall. "He'll be here." He reassured the humans with a smile and entered the hall.  
He almost dropped the loudspeakers because even a robot could be surprised. Especially when a large dragon stood in the hall and 3 extremities sized cables, heaved heavy boxes through the air and even managed to carry food to the mouth. The tail wagged through the air and held Steve's acrobatics in balance.  
"Do you think this is a good idea?" The Spine asked him.  
"No, but I also still have to do the sound check." Steve admitted between bites. The Spine looked at him doubtfully.  
"Okay! Matt feeds me. Michael closes the cables, Hatchworth and The Spine carry all the other things in and Rabbit will place everything." Command was heard by all but not joyfully received by all.  
"Why do I have to feed you? I won’t come close to your teeth with my hand!"  
"But don’t I want to place anything, I'm strong enough to carry something!"  
"And what are you doing?"  
Steve looked around and didn’t think long.  
"Leave me alone for one hour. Simply pile up everything up the door for me."  
Prompt the dragon body was growing and the tail hissed menacingly over the heads of all present.  
With a nod of Michael they all went out of the hall, leaving Steve prey to his chaos.

Just in time for entry Steve came out of the back door of the hall. Without a word, he let himself fall on a chair and emptied a large bottle of water in a gulp.  
The Spine looked sympathetically down at him. “I'm sorry but we still need you for the show."  
With an exhausted smile Steve rose and went to his place.  
After the concert, no one complained when Michael found the sound engineer asleep, curled up with Lil ' Steve behind a speaker. With a grin he threw a blanket over his sleeping friend and then set out to enjoy the nightlife with the others. They would deal with the equipment in the morning.


	7. Watchdog

Rabbit watched open-mouthed the television news. She stared at the images that flitted across the screen. When her brother Hatchworth entered the room, she turned to face him.  
"Watch out a dangerous robber is running around, Hatchy! We must all be r-r-r-r-r-really careful." She told him, smiling proudly as he nodded .  
"I’ll close all the windows!" Hatchworth offered.  
"And I’ll close all the doors! Nobody will come in here!"

And indeed, no one came into the house that evening. Especially not Michael, loaded with countless bags of the local construction market, standing in front of closed doors and typing furiously on his cell phone.  
"Yup?"  
"Steve? Michael here. I’m standing at the door and can’t come in."  
"What?"  
Five minutes later the door opened but then as if by magic. Steve laughed and pointed to the boards that were leaning against the corridor wall.  
"Rabbit has barricaded the house because a crazy idiot is on the loose around here. Come on, I'll help you with the bags."

It was pitch dark when Michael was awoken by a noise. He had fallen asleep in the workshop over his plans and Bebop had turned off the lights.  
"Bebop? Turn the lights back on, I 'm awake."  
"Of course, Mr. Reed. Reporting unauthorized visitors in Workshop 3."  
Immediately Michael was wide awake and looked around. The light was turned on but he had already left the room and ran down the corridor. Workshop 3 was the official name for the Archive of the Walter family. Since there were many blueprints of inventions stored, Peter A. Walter IV considered it appropriate to name the room as unobtrusively as possible. Not that it would interest a thief what a room was called. Michael noticed the side stitches when he turned into the corridor where the door to the archives was. He could clearly hear the screams.  
"Go away from me, you nasty bastard!"  
The thief had taken refuge on a table and beat wildly with a flashlight after the hyena that was growling angrily in front of him and repeatedly snapped at him. Michael was grateful that Robert had given the job to keep potential thieves and burglars at bay and not to infringe them. Where the archivist would probably rather have died himself as to soak the precious chronicles and books with blood of an intruder.  
"What is going on here?" Matt came through the same corridor as Michael and met him there.  
"Bob, it's all good. We’ll take over." Michael now entered the room with the reinforcement.  
The hyena giggled and backed away from the table.  
"What are ye for freaks! What kind of an ugly creature is that?" The thief was beside himself with panic.  
"Ugliness is in the eye of the beholder, my dear. And I'm a hyena, Crocuta crocuta more specifically, a spotted hyena, you uneducated bonehead."  
Matt rolled his eyes and went to the archivist to scratch him behind the ears. "Good job, Bob." Instead to insist on his full name as usual the archivist let it be and grunted the humans good-natured.  
"Come with me. What the hell did you want here?" Michael hid a yawn and grabbed the thief.  
"A hostage." They weren’t aware of what had just happened until Michael felt the cold metal on his temple. Wide-eyed, Matt was only able to watch the taking of hostages and had also to hold back Robert not to endanger Michael.  
"You won’t come out of here alive. No way. Not even with a hostage.” Michael tried to persuade the thief to release him.  
"I am! And you're helping me."  
An unpleasant tingling in his leg brought Michael out of the concept and made him look helpless. Certainly Bebop had alerted the robots or at least the staff that something was wrong. The tingling disappeared and instead someone now pulled on his shirt. However, when he looked down at himself, he saw nothing and instead got the gun barrel pressed even harder to the head.  
"Stop fidgeting, otherwise you're dead!"  
Michael nodded and tried to calm down. It wasn’t a nice feeling to stand there.  
"Damn!" The grip of the thief loosened as a small animal bit him in the hand and let the mechanic enough space to escape from his captor. And then all hell broke.

Peter looked briefly at the corpse and then turned to Steve and Robert. "That wasn’t very humane." He said tiredly.  
"If I were only a man, I would have broken every bone in the bastard!" Steve said with a snarl while he wiped the blood of the dead thief from his mouth.  
"Well, his choice of words is creative but I have to agree the dragon. We were animals, but humane. He died quickly and relatively painlessly." Added Robert and leaned on Matt.  
"I don’t know what you mean. But you could’ve warned him that he is about to go through a dimensional gat." Peter turned and nudged the body with his foot.  
"I'll have to call the police. After all he disappeared in my house without a trace."  
Steve grinned and scratched Robert. "We really are good guard dogs, aren’t we?"


	8. Best friend

For 4 days no one in the house had seen Matt. He slept regularly in his bed, which was unmade every morning, but otherwise there was no sign of him.  
"I 'm worried about him." Hatchworth confessed one morning during a normal check by Michael.  
"Lovesickness is a nasty feeling for us humans, Hatchworth." The mechanic tried to explain to the robot. He nodded knowingly.  
"It just worries me that no one has seen him. Rabbit was very sad in his worst heartbreak The Spine told me."  
Michael smiled and tilted his head. "Then we should look for Matt, right?"

The Spine looked up from his book and thought about it for a moment. "Yes, I've seen Matt. That was two days ago in the morning. He and Steve were out together the night before, I think. They weren’t feeling very good."  
Hatchworth looked at his brother. "What do you mean?"  
"I 'm afraid they were suffering from something that humans call a "hangover"." However the robot smiled a little and tried to find the right words for his little brother.  
"They have drunk too much alcohol." Michael said with a scowl. He could even understand it at Matt, but Steve should have been back to work the next morning.  
"And that's not good, because alcohol is a poison." Hatchworth concluded proud.  
"Imagine that you haven’t drunk any water for a very long time. The humans feel a lot like this I believe." The Spine had noted Michael’s look and seemed not to approve it either. "Maybe Rabbit has seen them. Or at least one of them."

Rabbit was in her room on her stomach and flipped through a women's magazine with Chelsea.  
"That's a pretty dress." she said, pointing to a page.  
"If you’ll give me a little time, I could try to tailor it for you." Chelsea offered.  
"Did one of you see Matt or Steve?" Michael dodged a pillow that was thrown at him.  
"Here is the Girl’s Zone!" Rabbit said outraged and then stopped. "Or do you want a dress?" She had been quite liberal as male robot and still didn’t understand the reactions of the humans on such topics.  
"No, thank you. I am not like that. Have you seen one of the two?" Shocked Michael moved back further when Chelsea came up to him with a measure tape.  
"We could emphasize your petite waist." She murmured.  
It was only when he sought safety behind a hallway dresser, the two began to laugh.  
"Steve went out this morning." Rabbit finally admitted. "But a dress would look great on you!" Michael snorted and looked at Hatchworth. He found him a little off, already one of these magazines in the metal fingers.  
"I like that. Can you make me to do that, Chelsea?" He politely asked with a joyful face. The Girl Walter nodded. "Of course I can make you this, Hatchy. But only if you scare away this stupid guy over there. He disturbs our girl talk." She winked at Michael who acknowledged the gesture with an crossing of the arms.  
"Let's go, Hatchy."

They found Matt in the garden, where he had already found company.  
A little dragon raged around him and did wild somersaults. Then he swung himself into the air and fired tiny fireballs and tried at the same time to eat them again. Snorting, he spiraled through the air, while it slowly grew and then almost was as big as a dog. He galloped through the tall grass and wiggled playfully with the wings.  
Hatchworth was about to say something when Michael held him back.  
"Let the both have their fun. Look, Matt can even laugh again."  
And indeed, the young man was very happy about the dragon who demonstrated clumsy tricks. He laughed and applauded when Steve finally returned to his human form completely breathless and lay down next to his friend on the grass.  
"I smell jealousy!" He stated puffing.  
"And I smell two lazy guys who are supposed to work." Michael replied with a laugh.  
"I can’t smell anything!" Hatchworth was happy about it and patted Matt careful.  
"Lovesickness is stupid." He said. Matt nodded and grimaced.  
"Do you also want a dress? Chelsea makes one for me and Rabbit gets one, too! A really pretty one!" A small smile crept up yet again on Matt's lips.  
"I can get one if I want. But I wanted to hear your opinion. Matching outfits and all." Michael grinned broadly at his colleague.  
"And what about me?" Indignant Steve sat back up and looked at the three.  
"There are no pretty dresses for dragons." Hatchworth replied plain. "You will burn it and make it dirty."  
Steve hung his head. "No dress for me."  
The dam was broken and a loud laugh echoed through the garden. Matt wiped tears of laughter from his eyes and looked around. Lovesickness was really stupid. But good friends helped against everything.


	9. Pet

The Spine strolled down the hall and knocked on the door to the archive. Only after the approval of Robert he entered the room and looked around. Smiling, he stepped to the archivist and brought him the desired book from the shelf.  
"Thank you. I just hope that Peter soon finds something against my state. What is this?"  
The Spine looked around innocently.  
"The thing in your breast pocket." Rustle of fabric was heard as the small head was withdrawn hastily.  
"The Spine, what's that?"  
The robot gave in and pulled out the little dragon. "He's my pet."  
Robert shook his head. "This is a dragon, no matter how small it is."  
"My Pet."  
"Is that Steve? You know that he isn’t welcome here!"  
"No, that's my pet."  
"Well, do you want to play this game? What is your pet called?"  
The Spines eyes regarded the little dragon for a short time. "Flappy."  
A small jet of flame let The Spine’s thumb glow from heat. "I have to read something, Bob! Don’t be mean, I don’t do anything!" Pouting, the small dragon sat on the palm of the robot and flipped the hyena off.  
"That's what you said last time. Get out of here before you singe the books again."  
The Spine cleared his throat. "Pets are allowed. And Steve is still in some ways a pet." He put the little Steve on the table with the books and looked at Robert.  
"Because he’s not a pet is the reason this damn hyena came into our house, have you forgotten?"  
"My memories of this event are still very accurate, thank you."  
"I'm nice!" Meanwhile, the dragon grew and took on a human traits.  
"You're never nice to me!"  
A piece of meat was pulled out of his pocket and grabbed out of the film. "Who is a nice hyena?"  
"Steve, I will not.... is this a rump steak?"

Steve spent the rest of the day in the archives, surrounded by books. The Spine had sat down beside him and smiled to himself.  
"What are you so happy about?" Steve asked, after all.  
"I imagine how you would look with a nice collar, Flappy."  
Without a word, Steve grabbed the book and gently hit the robot a few times with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all.   
> I hope you had a good time reading this! ^___^


End file.
